Paula J. Saires, Ulises Sedrán, Melisa Bertero
The valorization of agro-industrial byproducts through pyrolysis represents a sustainable route for generating multifunctional raw materials within the framework of a circular bioeconomy. In this study, rice husk (RH) and sugarcane bagasse (SCB) were pyrolyzed in a semi-continuous reactor at 500 °C in order to compare product yields and to characterize resulting gas, aqueous and tar fractions. SCB produced the highest bio-oil yield (44.2 wt%), whereas RH generated the highest char yield (42.9 wt%), consistent with its higher ash and lignin contents. In both cases, tar represented about 12 wt% of the bio-oil. Detailed characterization revealed that the liquid products contained oxygenated compounds of interest, mainly carboxylic acids, ketones, and phenols. Acetic acid was the predominant compound in the aqueous phases, while tars were composed mainly of phenols, ketones, furans, and acids. Particularly, phenols accounted for 52.6% and 37.8% of the total chromatographic area in RH and SCB tars, respectively, whereas ketones represented about 10% in both cases. These results show that pyrolysis of agro-industrial residues not only enables energy recovery but also provides liquid fractions enriched in value-added chemicals.